We're having an "Artists Among Us" gallery show at the place I work, with the theme "Retro Arcade". Here's the show description:
The idea for this show is to pull from our rich history of Bally and Williams Pinball and video arcade games. You can do an art piece on any theme that inspires you - or create a piece based on what pinball or video games mean to you! Use your creativity and do the artwork in your own personal style.
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| Original Joust poster illustrated by Williams Electronics artist Python Anghelo |
For the subject of my art submission, I chose the classic videogame
Joust. I felt like there were a conspicuous number of great elements in the game that would be fun to paint.
Knights riding ostriches! Pterodactyls! Floating stone platforms! Sounds like the sort of thing you'd find on a heavy metal album cover (which is another thematic convention I drew inspiration from). The only way it could be more metal was if the ostrich shot lasers out of its eyes--
oh wait, it's been done before.
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| Thumbnail sketch |
I kicked things off with a thumbnail sketch of the layout. I started out in Photoshop with a fairly limited color range, using Gradient masks to lay in colors from warm to cool. I already knew what my image area would be, as I had the opportunity to borrow a spare electronic lightbox from our Topbox department, and could spec things out accordingly. Since the image area was primarily horizontal and curved, it lent itself well to a panoramic-style layout.
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| Comprehensive rough |
Working the sketch into a rough, I tried playing around with angling of elements, searching for something that felt right. It was a fairly organic process, tweaking things like scale and placement as I went along.
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| Rendering work-in-progress |
Initially I envisioned something of a fisheye-lens view, but as the painting further developed, I found myself toning it down to emphasize the horizontal orientation. I also added some diffuse color, harmonizing it via Photo filters, and progressively tightened up the details. With this illustration, I really pushed for a higher level of polish using all the tricks and techniques I could come up with. I leveraged the use of layer styles like
Inner Glow and
Inner Shadow to quickly lay down lighting and shadow effects, and used
Bevel and Emboss for detailing in the armor.
Special attention was paid to the flow of the overall layout, making sure there was a definite hierarchy of visual weight (through the level of texture, color intensity, and repetition), employing traditional design strategies to direct the eye. With all the things to look at, areas for the viewer's eyes to rest were also important.
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| Rough diagram of the intended visual rhythm |
Once the art was completed, it was sent out for printing on clear film. To take advantage of the fact that the art would be lit, I asked that a sheet of special effect "sparkle" material be mounted to the 2nd surface (back) of the film substrate, with some areas masked out by a layer of screenprinted semi-opaque white ink. This enabled some of the highlights, and anywhere magma appeared, to have a prismatic glittery shine across the LED lighting. It's hard to see in photos, but in person it's an attractive look.
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| Sparkle material showing in the highlights and lava |
I'm happy with the way the final printed piece turned out. It looks great amongst all the fantastic game homages in the show, and it's a nice way to showcase glass art. All in all, the project was an enjoyable, engaging design exercise.
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| Mounted backlit film |
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| Final digital illustration |
